


Longing

by nevereatdirt



Series: Daily Drabbles [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-10-22 10:18:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17660816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nevereatdirt/pseuds/nevereatdirt
Summary: The lab is cold. The lab is always cold.





	Longing

**Author's Note:**

> a challenge to myself: a drabble a day. 30-60 minutes of writing every day. this is the first and is unbeta'd. hell i didn't even reread it myself

The lab is cold. The lab is always cold. Even in the summer. Especially in the winter. But the lab has to be cold, Ienzo knows. It has to be cold to keep the machines from overheating. It has to be cold to keep the samples safe when they’re out out the cooler. He shivers, wrapping his lab coat around himself more and going over the latest data he’d been given.

His hair hangs in his eyes and he pushes it back, tilting his head as he chews at the cap of his pen. His mind can’t seem to process it today. Maybe it’s the cold distracting him. Maybe it’s just the sheer amount of it. He isn’t sure. He isn’t sure he wants to know what it really is. Sighing, he hangs his head some and his hair falls back into his face like a cascade. He furrows his brow when it does, thinking to himself about getting it cut before he shakes the thought from his head to try and focus on the work in front of him.

He sighs as it evades him still, leaning back in his chair and shivering again. The lab is too cold. He can’t get that out of his mind. How can he work in this cold? He’d always been able to before, but now… Now he doesn’t have his heavy leather coat to keep him warm. He’d gotten so used to it that its absence is more than noticed.

He thinks about who he’d been then. How he was different. How he was the same. The difference in the people he knew now and then. The relationships that had changed.

He thinks on the few people he’d come to know as friends in his life without a heart. Was it really friendship if he couldn’t feel? He’d had the memory of feeling then at least. Had the memory of happiness on those days that he would spend in the library, his only company a silent man who would let him use him as a chair while he read on occasion.

The same man, and yet a different man, stands on guard at the door. Ever silent and expression still unreadable. A pang in his heart makes his chest tighten and the pit of his stomach drops. Even while he stands right there he *misses* him. Misses the familiarity of him, and of his touch.

He flushes some as he looks at him, thankful for the curtain that covers his face. He wants to talk to him, really he does. They never spoke all that much in the library when they were together. He was always so focused on reading and the other… Seemed content to sit in silence.

He clears his throat and stands, gripping tight at the edge of his desk and feeling the cold as his lab coat falls open. He looks over to the other and straightens himself out, wrapping the coat back around himself as he walks over to him.

He can see the look of confusion on his face and Ienzo licks his lips, nervous over just what he was going to do. What he was going to say.

For the first time since he can remember, Aeleus is the first to speak.

“Is… Something the matter?”

Yes. Yes something is the matter. Everything is the matter. His heart is tight and his mind is racing. He can’t concentrate. He can’t work. He can’t help but miss him. He wants to reach out and touch him and he isn’t sure just how to go about it. With a deep breath and heavy exhale, he tucks a trand of hair behind his ear as he thinks on what he’s going to say. He hadn’t planned this far. Hadn’t thought of just what to say. “I…” He tenses and curls in on himself some, wrapping the coat around him a little more tightly.

He feels a large hand on his shoulder, making him look up. The other has the same pained look on his face that he knows must be on his own. A sad smile is offered with a squeeze to his shoulder. A sigh is the only thing that comes from the other. When the hand leaves his shoulder the longing in him make his stomach turn. He can’t look up at him anymore. His gaze drops and he wills himself not to sniffle at not being able to say anything to him.

But then he feels a heavy warmth around him. Looking up he sees that the other has taken off his coat and he can’t help but to pull it around himself, glad for the way it warms him from the other’s lingering warmth. “Ah…” He has to collect himself. “Thank you.”

The other nods and rests a hand on his head before petting lightly, almost lovingly, through his hair. “You looked cold. I thought I’d warm you.”

It isn’t much. He knows that they both remember the way they wanted to feel about each other. He wonders if they ever could have that chance again. Maybe someday. Maybe.

Instead he nods and thanks him again, moving back to his seat and pulling the large coat around him. He feels surrounded by him now and tries to focus on him instead of the lab.

But the lab is cold.

The lab is always cold.


End file.
